Monday question: Shop talk, and talk, and talk
Monday question! I'll keep this brief--
I have not one, but three friends in different social circles who want to tell me entirely too much about events that happen in their workday. I understand the need to vent about a boss, but this goes way beyond that. Two of them work with children and I'm constantly hearing the specifics for 30 minutes to an hour about what goes on in a classroom.
I have children, I've been to school, I understand what school is - I don't care about projects, interactions with parents, misbehaviors and corrections, etc. I've tried to take the conversational off ramp with interruptions such as "Wow, sounds like you've had a tough day. I have too. So glad to get out and relax. What are you ordering for dinner?" only to be pushed back onto the highway of boredom with a response like "The chicken. So anyway....".
I've tried to move it along with "well, that's sounds trying. How did it all shake out?" and gotten responses like, "I"m getting to that....." and they just keep going. After 45 minutes, I once said to the friend who works with mentally challenged children,"that situation is so depressing. Can we talk about something else?" and she replied, "but I just love it so much" and then continued with another tale. If all three were in the same group, I'd just put them together, toss out a "how was your week" and let them burn one another's ears off, but they are not. Otherwise, they are great people. How can you tell friends that we all work but really unless something really unusually crazy happens between 9 and 5, no one is interested in the minutiae of your day?
What advice do you have, dear readers? I'll post mine on Friday -- and I'll be doing a live chat on Wednesday, so join me!
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Welcome to Miss Conduct’s blog, a place where the popular Boston Globe Magazine columnist Robin Abrahams and her readers share etiquette tips, unravel social conundrums, and gossip about social behavior in pop culture and the news. Have a question of your own? Ask Robin using this form or by emailing her at missconduct@globe.com.
Who is Miss Conduct?
Robin Abrahamswrites the weekly "Miss Conduct" column for The Boston Globe Magazine and is the author of Miss Conduct's Mind over Manners. Robin has a PhD in psychology from Boston University and also works as a research associate at Harvard Business School. Her column is informed by her experience as a theater publicist, organizational-change communications manager, editor, stand-up comedian, and professor of psychology and English. She lives in Cambridge with her husband Marc Abrahams, the founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, and their socially challenged but charismatic dog, Milo.
